The trip to the Sunlost Isles was far faster and more efficient than Dae wished for it to be. Once the Queen’s Guard had their orders and their plan worked out, the rest of the preparations had flown by with the help and support of various members of the Royal Cabinet.

The queen’s staff had been talented and far reaching enough in their influence to secure both transport and lodging for the trip for the entire route to the port city of Brights Harbor on the eastern edge of the Sunlost Isle.

Dae, Jyl and May had ridden quickly, and then sailed on a fast merchant ship, clothed in the guise of couriers until they reached the rooms reserved for them on the foreign shore of Brights Harbor. From there they were on their own though. Passage to Paxmer was, by necessity, going to require transit on a ship which had no connections to Gallagrin.

They’d arrived early on the tide and had found few ships heading out immediately for Paxmer, which meant a night spent at their apointed lodgings. It was an expected part of the trip but not one that any of the Queen’s Guard happy about.

“This is the first time we’ve been outside the boundaries of Gallagrin,” May said. “It is not an entirely comfortable experience.”

“That’s a good sign,” Dae said. “It says that you remember what home felt like. Hold onto that while we’re here, it’ll help keep keep you from getting entangled in any stray glamours.”

Kirios, Dae’s pact spirit wasn’t, able to rest easily outside the boundaries of his native realm and for May the unease was even more strongly felt. Despite that though, all three women and their pact spirits could function, unlike Paxmer’s dragons which were tied to their home or the magic weavers of the Sunlost isle who had no material to work with in other lands.

“I’ve never encountered a glamourist,” Jyl said. “I gather they don’t like my sort of people though?”

“Elves? No, glamour weavers are just fine with elves,” Dae said. “Or at least the few I’ve met were.”

“I thought they hated people who could resist their magics?” Jyl asked.

“It’s more complicated than that,” Dae said. “Elves are naturally resistant to glamour magics because they fit into the weavings so easily. If someone casts a glamour around you, you’ll be able to see it for what it is but that won’t harm the magic. It’ll welcome you into its folds. If they try the same thing on me, the glamour will probably shred, and the sleeping gods can only guess what’ll happen if they try to ensorcell May.”

“So we should basically all try to stay away from spell casters here then?” Jyl asked.

“That’s an excellent rule for life in general,” Dae said. “Each country has its own magics and none of us play all that nicely with the others.”

“That is by design is it not?” May asked.

“I thought it was only since the Gods Night that the Blessed Realms started fighting?” Jyl said. “The realms’ magics were designed well before then though.”

“Yeah, it’s almost like the Sleeping Gods weren’t so friendly with each other even while they were still awake,” Dae said. She thought back to the ancient tomes she and Alari had plundered from the Gallagrin castle archives. From the accounts of people who lived before the Gods Night, the “Divine Peace of the Blessed Realms” was more fiction than fact even when the divine patrons of the realms were still around to manage things.

“How hostile are the glamour weavers here likely to be?” Jyl asked.

“If they discover us as Pact Knights?” Dae said. “They’ll be a little miffed. Foreign agents traveling through a country without properly notifiying the authorities are technically considered spies. In practice though, as long as we’re not caught spying on people here in Sunlost, the local noble’s will turn a blind eye to us.”

“Don’t their interests align with Gallagrin’s in this matter?” May asked.

“That’s a delicate subject,” Dae said. “On the one hand, it’s not like Sunlost enjoys losing their trade with us. On the other, none of the realms can condone actions against another realm since that would threaten the ‘Divine Peace’.”

“We’ve spent centuries fighting with Paxmer over our borders though!” Jyl said.

“Border fighting is like a sport as far as the monarchs of the realms are concerned, apart from our queen that is, she doesn’t believe in playing games when it comes to people’s lives,” Dae said. “For the rest though, win or lose, it’s just a number of extra subjects more or less and some won or lost trade. It becomes steadily more difficult to gain terrain the farther into a country an army tries to advance and so far no crown has ever faced the possibility of losing their power to an outside force.”

“There is a great disturbance on the waves,” May said, her gaze growing distant.

“Yeah, the ocean is no one realm’s domain, so that’s where the most serious conflicts take place,” Dae said. “We can’t rule the waves themselves, but we can exact tarrifs for traveling through waters we control if our navy is strong enough.”

“I thought Sunlost had the biggest navy on the seas?” Jyl asked.

“They do, and they cast the widest net, but they also charge the highest tarrifs so ships still choose to sail through the waters we control,” Dae said. “Also they have a better chance of out running our tarrif ships than they do Sunlost’s boats.”

“I speak not of far off places or distant days, but to our immediate horizon,” May said and rose from the table in their private room.

Dae and Jyl followed her out of the door of the inne they were staying at and saw that the waves of the eastern horizon were ablaze with fire.

“Tell me that’s not what I think it is,” Jyl said, her almond eyes wide wide with  unease.

“Huh, gouts of green flame,” Dae said. “I guess that men’s they’re sending out the youngling dragons now.”

“Aren’t they a little close to Sunlost to be fighting a pitched battle?” Jyl asked.

“I would have thought so,” Dae said. “There must be something special on the Sunlost-bound ships for the Paxmers to have pursued them this far.”

In the distance, a series of bells started ringing.

“They’re calling for all the fighting ships in port to sail against the tide and aid the inbound ships,” Dae said. “Let’s head back to the harbor. This might be the opportunity we need.”

The ringing of the bells grew louder as they reached the docks and the bustle of the city turned into the pandemonium of an impromptu war exercise. Dae scanned the crowds and the ships that were being prepared for a minute before focusing on one of the larger boats that was berthed about a quarter mile down the docks from them.

“Let’s go see what’s happening out there,” she said and set off at a brisk jog.

Moving through the crowds took coordination and agility and strength (in Dae’s case) or a palpable aura (in May’s) or the ability to nearly vanish from view and slide through gaps too small for a full sized human (Jyl’s preferred method). Using their preferred techniques, each member of the Queen’s Guard managed to make roughly the same time through the crowd but it was Dae who arrived first and spoke to the Quartermaster in charge of loading the Fearless.

“What are we supposed to do to help?” Dae asked halting in front of the large, night dark quartermaster.

“Who in the hells are you?” he asked without looking up from his inventory list.

“New marines,” Dae said. “We were just signing up when the bells started ringing and we were told to come down here and do whatever you told us to.”

“Spit an iron spike in my eye, but that’s good timing,” the quartermaster said. “Each of you grab a crate and get it back on the ship. We leave these here and the wharf rats will eat us out of our bunks.”

Dae saw the quartermaster’s dilemma. The Fearless had to leave as soon as it could, but half its cargo was already unloaded onto the docks. In theory, since it was their berth, the cargo would be safe and protected by the dock patrol, but it was a rare-to-unheard dock patrol that could prevent heavy pilferage, especially in a chaotic situation like an unexpected battle.

To the quartermaster’s delight, Dae, Jyl and May managed to load in about half of the crates before the Fearless got underway.

With the tide against them, the ships in Brights Harbor were required to utilize alternate means of locomotion to reach the site of the ongoing battle. Like several others, the Fearless met the incoming waves with a host of water sprites at its sides. The human-sized water spirits grabbed onto the hull and hauled the boat along, providing enough force to put it in the lead as the makeshift armada rolled out to sea.

“Who are you?” the Fearless’ Sergeant-at-Arms demanded when he saw Dae and the others at the railing, looking at the battle they were rapidly drawing nearer too.

“New marines,” Dae said. “I’m Kor. Where are we supposed to fight?”

“Don’t know about any new marines,” the Sergeant-at-Arms said. He looked like he was going to tell them to take a flying leap off the ship, but then he saw May. “Beasts of the blue. Where’d they find you?”

“We volunteered,” May said with a disarming smile. The quartermaster blanched.

“You’re on the ropes,” he said, referring to the boarding ropes. That would give Dae the opportunity to be the first one to make it over to one of the Paxmer boats. It would also remove May from the quartermaster’s presence as soon as was practically possible. That the ropes were the single most dangerous position for a combatant during a boarding action was merely a necessary part of the job from Dae’s point of view and an added bonus from the quartermaster’s perspective.

By the time the Fearless reached the site of the battle though, the fighting had ended. In its wake, only the burning remains of a half dozen ships still bobbed on the surface, with a like number already sinking to their fiery graves below.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” the Sergeant-at-Arms said. “There’s no chance these ships were looted properly.”

“It looks like they burned them just to burn them,” Dae said, watching one of the fiery wrecks fall to pieces as the flames destroyed the integrity of the hull.

“Where’s the profit in that though?” The Sergeant-at-Arms said.

“They’re not looking for gain,” Dae said. “They’re trying to send a message.”

“And probe Sunlost’s defenses,” May said.

“This’ll mean war though,” the Sergeant-at-Arms said.

“Only if those were Sunlost ships,” Dae said. “I think we’ll find that they belonged to Gallagrin though.”

“I don’t think Gallagrin’s going to respond to it any better than Sunlost would,” the Sergeant-at-Arms said.

“From what I heard when last time I traveled through Highcrest, it doesn’t sound like there’s any love lost on Paxmer by the crown of Gallagrin,” Dae said.

“Typical continentals,” the Sergeant-at-Arms said. “Should be the best of neighbors but they can’t wait to kill each other. Savages.”

“It’s a savage world out there,” Dae said. “Makes it easier to make a living through fighting.”

“You’re too young to be that smart,” the Sergeant-at-Arms said.

“I got started early,” Dae said.

“Didn’t we all,” the Seargeant-at-Arms said. “When we get back to shore, let me buy you three a drink. I should get to know what you can do if you’re going to be fighting under our flag.”

“We’re not heading back to shore,” the First Officer said. “Orders from land, we’re to pursue the attacking force and identify the vessels involved.”

“They’ve got quite a lead on us,” Dae said.

“Not for long,” the First Officer said. “Keep sharp. We’ll be passing them within two hours. If the glamours hold, we’ll be berthed in Windsmer before they are. If not we’ll have a rather interesting battle on our hands.”

Dae considered that news, especially the fact that apparently the glamour weavers of Sunlost had discovered a method of working their magics outside their home realm. It wasn’t likely that anything good was going to come of that, but Dae tucked the knowledge away for later use anyways.

Overthrowing a foreign ruler seemed like a tall order to Jyl for her first day on the job as one of the Queen’s Guard but the seriousness of her commanding officer’s gaze, and the pleasant, confident smile of her sovereign left her little doubt that this was how her tenure was going to begin.

“Our first stop in Paxmer will be at the estate of the Lady Estella sur Korkin,” Dae said, pointing to an area on the map before them that was along Paxmer’s northern coastal region.

The Queen’s Guard, all three of them, were assembled in the Royal Planning and Tactics room. The Queen sat at her usual place at the head of the enormous planning table on the elevated chair from which dozens of her predecessors had surveyed the shifting currents of the world.

Dae stood in the traditional position of the chief strategist; on top of the table, striding across the world as she made her points and called attention to the various areas of concern. The table’s surface was laid out as a near-perfect map of the Blessed Realms and some of the wastelands which bordered them. Usually armies were depicted, or trade routes, but for the meeting with the Queen’s Guard all that was stripped away.

Jyl saw only a handful of location markers on the map and, more worryingly, a set of figures depicting Paxmer’s dragons.

“We will need to travel quietly and without attracting notice,” Dae said. “That will be easy up until we reach here.” She tapped the port city of Windsmer. “We can sail to Paxmer on a merchant ship from the Sunlost Isles. That will get us into Paxmer. Getting to Lady Korkin’s estate is where we will need to exercise more care.”

“If we are to move in secrecy, then how shall I accompany you?” Lady Mayleena Telli asked.

Jyl frowned and considered the question too. May was not the sort of woman who could blend in with a crowd. Even apart from her unusual appearance, May had an aura that was unsettling. Something about how she moved, or breathed, or the noises that she didn’t make was enough to put people on edge. For anyone who was bound to a pact spirit the effect was even stronger.

Jyl had managed to avoid an insulting defensive reaction the first time she met May mostly because the Queen had explained May’s condition and prepared Jyl for what to expect. Since then the two had established a companionable rapport. Jyl’s twin loved to tease and torment her, which had given the young elf nerves of reinforced steel. Dismissing her pact spirit’s otherwise reasonable worries about May was child’s play compared to enduring her sister’s schemes.

“We need to keep our identities a secret,” Dae said. “I’m counting on you to help with that. You’re not going to strike anyone as a Pact Knight, and the more people are paying attention to you, the less they’ll notice either Jyl or I.”

“Pardon, but does that mean that we’re going to have make this trip without calling on our pact spirits at all?” Jyl asked, seeing the endeavor growing a dozen times more challenging than climbing climbing Gallagrin’s tallest mountain.

“See, I told you she was quick,” Dae said, glancing at the queen.

“Yes,” Alari said. “You carry our royal blessing, and Lady Akorli is empowered to speak in our voice, but for our plans to come to fruition no one can know that our Guard is moving against Paxmer until the time is right.”

“Lady sur Korkin is integral to this plan?” May asked.

“That is our hope,” Alari said. “We know that Paxmer has weaknesses. Every country does. Their dragons cover many of those weaknesses but Lady sur Korkin seems to have escaped their notice.”

“Before we discuss this any further though, there’s something you both should know,” Dae said. “Lady sur Korkin is my mother, she has betrayed her family in the past, and I am currently uncertain whether I will kill her when we meet.”

Jyl searched her commander’s face for a hint of humor and found nothing. No smile. No frown. No sign that the Queen’s Knight was anything except blandly serious. She looked to the queen and thought she saw a trace of worry and concern on her monarch’s brow but it was quickly hidden behind a cool, silent expression.

“That will change the parameters of our mission I presume?” May asked, all innocent curiosity.

Given her family life, it was unusual for Jyl to feel like the one sane person in a room, but she was fairly certain that was the case in this instance. The cause of the murderous madness was unclear however (apart from Mayleena who seemed to process things in her own unique manner).

Jyl hadn’t studied her commander’s history beyond what was commonly known; Daelynne Akorli was the childhood friend of the queen, and she’d willing taken a demotion after a fierce attack on a fort under her command. She’d then returned at the queen’s hour of greatest need and slain not only the rogue Duke of Tel but also the treacherous Consort King, beheading him in front of the nobles of the realm. She’d earned the sobriquet “The Bloody Blade” for that action as it was said that when she fully transformed her sword still dripped with royal blood.

“We’ll take a more fluid approach to destabilizing Paxmer if Lady sur Korkin…” Dae searched for the right words, “…provokes me.”

Jyl couldn’t fathom what Lady sur Korkin had done that had left her daughter so casually homicidal. Jyl’s own mother had been a guiding light in her life and had inspired her to be everything she had become. Without that support, Jyl imagined she was be far less put together than the Queen’s Knight seemed to be.

“What does Lady sur Korkin stand to offer us if she proves to be a tractable ally?” May asked, still innocently curious.

“Paxmer is ruled by dragons,” Alari said. “Some of them are giant reptilian beasts, but others walk in human flesh. Regardless their souls are as one. Their strength allows them to gather power to themselves, and dragons in any form do not share power easily.”

“That’s true in both poetic and practical terms,” Dae said. “Paxmer’s nobles are judged based on the size of the hordes they control. To build those hordes they concentrate the wealth of the country into their own hands to the greatest extent possible.”

“Haldri Paxmer knows that her people despise this, but she also knows that with her dragons she can safely ignore them,” Alari said. “Open revolt is impossible as all Paxmer needs to do is strip the rebels of their citizenship and then feed them to a flight of fire breathing monsters.”

“The citizens of Paxmer are as clever as any other nationality though,” Dae said. “So they’ve discovered methods to revolt in secret.”

“Bandit raids have become commonplace in Paxmer,” Alari said. “They strike primarily at the tax collectors and are believed to be amassing hordes of their own.”

“Lady sur Korkin cannot be known to have ties to them though, can she?” Jyl asked. She was familiar with the lengths people who possessed power were willing to go to retain that power.

“She holds no lands, and owns only a single family estate inherited from her father,” Alari said. “From what my agents have been able to discern, she leads a reclusive life and is scrupulous about paying her taxes, but she pays them directly to the Royal Paxmer Exchequer, in person each year.”

“That sounds as though she is quite loyal to the Paxmer crown,” May said.

“No, it doesn’t,” Jyl said, seeing the outline of the picture the Queen was illustrating. “That sounds like someone who doesn’t want to the tax collectors to inspect her estate. How old is the house that she owns?”

“Ancient,” Dae said. “It’s a family dwelling which stretches back to the founding of Paxmer as a nation.”

Jyl looked at the map.

“It’s not close to either the coast or the border,” she said. “The only roads that run by it seem minor too, if the depiction here is right?”

“My agents have confirmed the accuracy of the map in this area,” Alari said.

“The Lady Estella’s family has never been an important one in the political scene of Paxmer,” Dae said. “But they have managed to survive for centuries.”

“Which means they have hidden resources to draw on,” Jyl said.

“And they will draw on them for us?” May asked.

“That is your mission to discover,” Alari said. “If our suspicions are correct, then Lady sur Korkin has been working against the interests of the Paxmer crown for many years now. If we are incorrect, then it is at least very likely that she has contacts with the silent rebels as the number of bandit attacks in the region is low but the capture rate for the bandits is almost non-existent.”

“So someone is helping them coordinate and is ensuring that the area stays beneath the notice of the crown?” Jyl asked.

“Will our arrival be seen as a disruption of that cultivated state?” May asked.

“Yes, to both of your questions,” Alari said. “Disruption is necessary though.”

“That brings us to the Lost Hordes of Paxmer,” Dae said. “It turns out when you have a group of people blinded by goldlust and an obsessive need for secrecy, you occasionally wind up with families who are wiped out without all of their hordes being discovered.”

“We thought rebellions were impossible in Paxmer?” May asked.

“Impossible no. Difficult yes,” Dae said. “Most of the noble families who’ve been lost to history were destroyed by internal struggled with other Paxmer families.”

“No one can hate you like the people who know you best,” Jyl said, thinking of the toxic elements of her own family.

“The Lost Hordes are said to contain vast amounts of forgotten wealth, and, more importantly, certain mythical items,” Alari said.

“The mythical item that we’re most concerned with is the Spirit Crown,” Dae said.

“We are unfamiliar with that myth?” May asked.

“The story goes that there was once a crown given to the sovereign of Gallagrin which granted them absolute command over Pact Spirits,” Dae said. “This was from Gallagrin’s early days when the Royal Pact Spirit was much weaker than it is today and the possibility of revolt by the Pact Warriors of the realm was more of an issue.”

“That’s an artifact level creation. Who could make something like that?” Jyl asked.

“The Sleeping Gods,” Alari said. “Before they slept.”

“Like most other god tools, the crown was lost when the gods descended into their slumber,” Dae said. “Or not so much lost as stolen. The thief didn’t make it far out of Gallagrin before falling victim to further treachery though, and the crown was mistaken for a common piece of simply adorned golden jewelry.”

“You think it’s been rediscovered?” Jyl asked.

“More importantly, we want to make sure Haldri Paxmer does not place her hands on it,” Alari said. “If she were to gain the power to control Pact Spirits, her forces would become truly unstoppable.”

“Why would you believe it could be found in this area of Paxmer?” May asked, indicating the region of the map around Dae’s mother’s estate.

“In addition to the exceptionally low rate of bandit captures, there has been a steady and increasing amount of trade with the Sunlost Isles that has funneled through Windsmer,” Alari said. “The Paxmer people are buying far more than even their successful banditry can account for.”

“Which suggests that someone has found one or more of the Lost Hordes,” Jyl said, filling in the blank.

“And there have been rumors of a particularly deep delve that was opened,” Dae said. “One which holds treasures dating back to beginning of the current era.”

“Even apart from the Spirit Crown, treasures that old would be priceless,” Jyl said, trying to imagine what other relics of the lost age of the gods might be hidden in the depths of Paxmer.

“Oh, I think we can put a price on them,” Dae said. “I think they’ll cover the cost of overthrowing one of the Blessed Realms. We just need to be the ones to find it first.”

The Queen’s private wine reserves held not only some of the finest quality wines in the kingdom but also some of Gallagrin’s the most potent liquors.

“We will require our senses about us for the remainder of the day,” Alari said, filling a tiny thimble of a glass half full with a thick amber colored spirit.

“You are free to tap out whenever you like, Your Majesty,” Dae said, a wicked gleam of challenge in her eyes.

“Oh, is that how it shall be?” Alari asked, and poured the thimble glass into a flagon larger than both of her fists, before continuing to fill the flagon, and two others like it, near to the rim.

Dae had never managed to drink Alari under the table, but it hadn’t been from lack of trying. The two were careful when and where they held their impromptu contests, which limited the damage of people finding them in a less than coherent state when they discovered, and exceeded, their limits.

“This draught smells unique,” Mayleena said. “I don’t believe we’ve had its like before?”

“Odds are you won’t again either,” Dae said. “From what Her Majesty has told me, this barely qualifies as drinkable for most people.”

“And we are imbibing it why then?” Mayleena asked.

Dae inhaled the aroma of the Beesting Brew from her flagon and felt the sharp burning prickle spread up her nose and into her sinuses. It wasn’t an especially enjoyable sensation, but the warm afterwave that followed left her lightly swaying in a pleasant enough manner.

The trickle of magic that Kirios fed Dae was enough to easily throw off the more toxic effects of inhaling the brew. The same wasn’t going to be true by the time she reached the bottom of the flagon though, but that was what made the drink an adventure.

“My Knight is something of an inebriate and she demands company in her debauchery or she grows unbearable,” Alari said, lifting her flagon and taking a long pull from it.

“Our Queen, as is her privilege, omits to mention how it was she who placed me on the path of potable wickedness,” Dae said. “Or how she has always been my guide post and milestone. Also, if you are the sort to easily lose control, I think I would rather not be entirely sober when that happens.”

“Lose control?” Mayleena asked. “This is a test?”

“The Queen trusts you,” Dae said. “If we’re going to work together though, I need to know where your limits are.”

She took a long drink her flagon, matching Alari’s. The Beesting Brew was as bad going down as she remembered it being, and despite her familiarity with it, she had to swallow the liquer carefully to avoid choking on it.

“And if we refuse to drink?” Mayleena asked, staring at the beverage in front of her.

“That’s one option for ending the test,” Dae said. “It’s not a bad one either. I can appreciate someone who knows their limits or at least is willing to set boundaries to protect themselves.”

Mayleena took her flagon and drained a quarter of the liquid from it in a single swallow.

“Interesting,” she said. “This really is toxic isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Alari said. “For those without Pact Spirits to call on, it over stimulates the nerves and can produce paralysis or death. We are very careful whom we share this particular vintage with.”

“We are honored then Your Majesty,” Mayleena said.

“You’re also unaffected by the toxins you just drank,” Dae said, observing Mayleena’s reactions. “Would you care to provide a more elaborate explanation for what happened to you?”

Mayleena looked to Alari and the Queen nodded to her.

“I blamed my father for our state,” Mayleena said. “The truth though is that I can as easily blame myself for what happened to us.”

“Us?” Dae asked.

“You can see, and Kirios can sense, that we are not simply Mayleena Telli,” May said. “Our story begins when Mayleena sought a Pact Binding without her father’s approval, in order to avoid a marriage arrangement when she was fifteen.”

Dae noticed May call Kirios by name, something which no one other than Alari or one of the other people present at Dae’s pact binding could have known.

“Mayleena didn’t have the proper training,” May said. “But we were still compatible. She snuck down into the lowest basements of the Telli estates at Elinspire to perform the binding ritual alone. We discovered in the process that Oxina was first woken there.”

“That should have made the binding even harder though,” Dae said. “You were are the primary locus of the spirit’s power, right?”

“Yes, and that’s what made it ideal,” May said. “Mayleena’s natural talent was more than Onixa had bargained for and Onixa’s power was more than Mayleena could handle.”

“That sounds like the makings of a tragic disaster and yet you sit here at peace and more in control than I can imagine anyone in your situation being,” Dae said. She took another drink from her flagon and felt a slight wave of numbness wash over her head. Gone were the days when she wished to obliterate her consciousness and with the difference in quality between what she’d tried to drown herself in when she was an officer of the Nath Dawn March and what the queen’s private reserves could supply Dae was able to enjoy the sensation of the Beesting Brew as a reminder of the childhood misadventures she’d shared with Alari, which only added to the overall pleasantness of the experience.

“We are only a tragedy to those who would call us a tragedy,” Mayleena said. “Within ourselves we are complete and content.”

“Mostly content,” Alari said. “Tell Lady Akorli why you wished to pursue a place on the Queen’s Guard.”

“Our union is a unique one,” May said. “Onixa and Mayleena, from a certain point of view, no longer exist. We are both of them but we are more than that as well, and we need help in becoming our new self.”

“That doesn’t sound like a reason to join the Queen’s Guard,” Dae said. “It sounds like a calling to one of the meditation houses.”

“We have meditated for long enough,” May said. “When we first worked the binding, we fought against each other until it became clear that there was no future to be found in tearing ourselves to shreds.”

“You still think of yourself as being two separate beings though don’t you?” Dae asked.

“We try not to, but I find it difficult sometimes,” May said. “Mayleena’s reactions to a situation can be very different from Onixa’s and both can be different from what feels right to do when we’re confronted with an immediate decision.”

“What happens when your facets are too far out of alignment with each other?” Dae asked.

“We don’t go berserk,” May said. “Whatever I am, it’s only looks similar to a Berserker. If the parts of me disagree too strongly, I seem to fall apart briefly, with one side or the other holding greater sway over what I do.”

“That’s what we saw in the garden, wasn’t it?” Dae asked.

“Yes,” May said. “I was nervous about the meeting and lost my touch on this world for a brief while.”

“Where did you go?” Dae asked.

“To Onixa’s realm,” May said. “I have learned to control that, but not perfectly yet.”

“What was it that scared you about today’s meeting?” Dae asked.

“I was afraid you would say no to my application,” May said.

“Even if I did, the Royal Guard would definitely take you,” Dae said. “And the Queen is more than capable of overruling my objections on a candidate.”

“We would never overrule your objections on a matter like this, my Knight,” Alari said.

“That’s because all of my objections are excellent,” Dae said, taking another drink from her flagon. Alari rolled her eyes and took a drink from her flagon too.

“I’m afraid I am simply greedy,” May said. “The Queen’s Guard promises to have what I need most in this life; challenges.”

“It’s true that we don’t seem to be short on those, but why would that be so important to you?” Dae asked.

“I need to forge memories that are unique to me,” May said. “I need to do things that neither Mayleena nor Onixa could do on their own. When I feel two instinctive responses, I need to be able to pick the third path that’s true to what I believe, not just what Onixa and Mayleena can agree on. Without those memories, it feels like I’m going to fade away someday and then all that will be left will be the Berserker urges that live at the base of everyone’s mind.”

“What if those memories aren’t good ones?” Dae asked.

“I don’t understand?” May said.

“We’re the Queen’s Guard,” Dae said. “There will be people who hate us just for standing beside her. There will be people who we will very likely have to kill, and there will be people who survive them who will have every reason to hate us even more.”

Dae watched May’s face and saw recognition widen the younger woman’s eyes.

“People like Mayleena’s father,” May said, and looked down. “I hope to be able to live outside of his shadow, but I know it is a long one.”

“His crimes cast no shadows on you,” Alari said.

Mayleena coughed out a bitter laugh.

“We fear he will always darken our life,” May said.

“The past is hard to escape,” Dae said, casting a glance at Alari, who nodded in acceptance of the sentiment.

“That is another reason we were nervous for this meeting,” May said. “Though it isn’t something you should ever need to ask for, please know that you have our forgiveness and our thanks for your actions last fall. You saved my brother and stopped a man neither of us believed could be stopped. You even spared us from an ill-conceived marriage to the Consort King.”

“You’re thanking me for slaying the Duke?” Dae asked.

“Yes, neither Ren nor I could raise our hands against him, but it is still a relief beyond words that he is gone,” May said.

“From what I knew of the man, I’d hoped it would be,” Dae said, “There will be others like him though. Including people who are beloved by those they favor.”

“It seems like, with those people, discussion and diplomacy might work where they would have failed with my father,” May said.

“Sometimes that will be the case,” Alari said. “I believe my Knight is concerned that the Queen’s Guard will more often be called upon to deal with the occasions where peaceful means are not an option.”

“On those occasions I will need to follow my own heart,” May said.

“That may not be what the Guard needs,” Dae said.

“But it will always be what the Queen needs,” Alari said. “My Knight is pledged to support us beyond reason, as we are pledged to her. We do not ask anyone else to offer us such allegiance. From someone we do not know as well as Lady Akorli, we would mistrust such devotion. Instead we would ask our guards to protect us from all threats, including the ones we bring on our self.”

“I can pledge to do that with an unreserved heart!” May said.

“Then consider yourself part of the Queen’s Guard,” Dae said.

“That’s it?” May asked. “There’s no trial of battle? No other tests?”

“You survived the Duke of Tel’s reign, you were instrumental in freeing your brother last fall and a trial of battle would only confirm what I can already see,” Dae said. “The truth is, if I had to, I’d be arm wrestling Sir Kemoral in the town square for you to be on my team.”

“You only tell us this now?” Alari said. “We feel as though we have missed an opportunity for a diverting entertainment there.”

She finished her flagon of Beesting but thanks to the Gallagrin Pact Spirit was feeling no more of its effects than May was.

“You don’t want me to humiliate the commander of your Royal Guard, Your Majesty,” Dae said. “Think of what it would do for next year’s recruitment efforts.”

Kirios was able to take the worst of the Beesting’s bite away, but enough was left to quiet Dae’s fears of the mission that lay ahead of them. Even if it was only for one night, it felt good to be able to let her guard down, especially knowing that in Paxmer that would be impossible.

Haldri of Paxmer was displeased and the castle shook with her wrath.

“At least the bandit died screaming,” Haldraxan said, looking at the corpse chained to the table before him. The body had literally shattered under the assault of the dragon fear Haldraxan had subjected it to. Haldri knew that in his younger years Haldraxan would have found the resulting mess appetizing but humans were a taste he’d claimed to have long grown tired of. He would still eat people when she requested it, but feeding the giant beast the odd malcontent here and there didn’t earn her the same appreciation it had garnered for her predecessors.

“It boggles my mind how someone can be so fragile as to die of fear and yet so resilient that they manage to withhold the information we demand of them,” Haldri said, ignoring the physical ruin that remained of the subject in question and the impossibility of any mortal survival that level of destruction.

“Perhaps I am becoming unsteady in my age,” Haldraxan said, stretching his vast neck  as though working out a long standing kink. Dragons did not suffer the pains the Mindful Races were prey to, so the gesture was nothing more than an affectation. Haldri found it amusing how human-like her dragon had become over his long association with her family. Despite that, she was careful to never make the mistake of actually thinking of him as a human. Theirs was a close relationship but not so close that she was incapable of offending the great beast.

“You are more steady than the mountains and more powerful than the sea, my Haldraxan,” she said and pressed herself to his giant leg. No other human was allowed to touch, or even be near, Haldraxan’s regal body. He was as much the embodiment of Paxmer as Haldri was, with the distinction that he did not need to mate to ensure the continuity of his line. As an immortal, he was the sum total of his line. Any who would claim to be his successor, be they son, daughter or other, were doing no more than presenting a challenge to his rule and were answered promptly in kind.

“Will it inconvenience us that the prisoner did not name the location of our treasure?” Haldraxan asked. Dragons didn’t purr but there was a particular rumble which built in their chest when they were pleased. The loss of the prisoner and his treasure was bother but both of them knew it offered the possibility of wrecking a broader level of mayhem on those they oppressed and that was a pleasing prospect as well.

“Yes it will,” Haldri said. “There may be malcontents entrenching themselves against even now.”

“Splendid,” Haldraxan said, the delight of future fires burning in his eyes.

“I should go and entertain the guests I called,” Haldri said. “Perhaps when I am done though perhaps we can plan where we shall begin looking for our missing hordes?”

“Another night, my Haldri,” Haldraxan said. “Tonight I am promised to the whelps. Their scales must be hardened if they are to serve aboard our ocean vessels.”

“Another flight of younglings is ready so soon?” Haldri said. “That is excellent news.”

“I urge you not to raise your hopes,” Haldraxan said. “It is a small flight. Few have survived the trials in this group.”

“Will they survive your firing?” Haldri asked. Dragon rearing had many differences from child raising among the Mindful Races. For a litter of dragon young to survive to adulthood was unheard of, but the few members who did were uniformly terrible in their power.

“I have my doubts,” Haldraxan said. “If we see one or two make it through, I will be glad and content, but I fear only disappointment awaits us.”

“Then look forward to the morrow,” Haldri said. “We shall plan a proper excursion and if we should loot some of Gallagrin’s hordes in the process then perhaps the Red Handed Queen will be drawn out of her hiding hole all the sooner.”

“Mmm, Gallagrin blood is lovely and their meat roasts up so nicely,” Haldraxan said. “Thank you, my Haldri, you have improved my evening immensely.”

“You are an inspiring presence, my Haldraxan,” Haldri said and pulled herself away from the dragon.

The two parted without a glance backwards, which for Haldri was the deepest sign of trust and affection she could show.

Stepping out of the interrogation chamber, Haldri felt the midday sun on her face. The questioning had taken longer, and ended more poorly, than she’d planned but her guests were not in a position to complain.

Haldri detoured from joining them and stopped at one of her lesser wardrobes. She liked to think of the wardrobes as clothes hordes, each one balanced by against the others in terms of value and size and each one cleaving to a different theme or purpose.

Since it seemed the day for it, Haldri chose her closest “fear” wardrobe. She knew she didn’t need to intimidate the traitors to Gallagrin she was hosting, they were each terrified of her already. Haldri didn’t believe it was possible to command too much respect though and the right pressure exerted early on could save her a tremendous amount of back talk later on.

When she finally joined her guests two hours later, she wore a simple set of regalia that was overlaid with a fine chainmail of dwarven black steel. It gleamed as she moved and reflected the violet colors of the rainbow from the gem-like links of polished metal.

To a commoner like the guildmaster Merrin it was an outfit that would speak of incredible wealth, which was the form of power Merrin could most easily recognize. To a military campaigner like the fortress lord Baron Gedli though, the few dull patches on the attire would stand out like a signal fire.

Haldri’s attire was not Gallagrin style formal wear. It was fully functional battle armor. The kind one would wear if one wished to retain the option of slaughtering one’s guests by hand rather than bothering to call the palace guards.

Haldri didn’t watch either Merrin or Gedli when she entered the dining room though. She instead observed Duchess Sanli, who met the queen’s gaze with a light smile and remained silent. Haldri smiled back. The Duchess was shrewd enough to read the true intent of the dress.

Don’t ask me how the interrogation went, the dress said. And don’t ask to see the prisoner.

Haldri regretted allowing her guests to the see the bandit before the interrogation. She could have substituted some other figure to demonstrate the power she possessed if her guests weren’t familiar with the bandit’s face. As it was, the destroyed body left in the interrogation room would only convince the Gallagrin traitors of her savagery though, and any half mad brigand could create a similar or even more disturbing scene.

“Your chefs are exceptional, Your Majesty,” Duchess Sanli said. “They seem to have mastered a much wider variety of spices than our poor mountain cooks have been exposed to.”

The Duchess wished to speak of trade, as a cover to discussing other, less allowable exchanges. Haldri nodded but allowed Gedli to speak next.

“The deserts are certainly novel,” the Baron said. “Perhaps if we should visit again, we can bring some of our homelands delicacies for you to enjoy?”

The Baron found the hot spices of Paxmer’s cuisine difficult to tolerate much less enjoy. He wished to have more comfortable food to dine on but was wise enough not to disparage his host’s offerings.

Haldri made a note to have the dinner chefs prepare Gallagrin pastries for the night’s deserts. Gedli’s seduction was one he was willing to do all the work to accomplish. All Paxmer’s queen had to do was give him the faintest of threads to hang a belief that he wasn’t betraying his homeland so much as joining the side that should have been his home to begin with.

“How’d the interrogation go?” Merrin asked.

“The prisoner proved to have an unexpectedly weak heart,” Haldri said, without grinding her teeth, “It was unsatisfying.”

“Sorry to hear that,” Merrin said. “If we can come to an arrangement, I can have my teamsters keep their eyes open for other bandits like that one.”

Haldri suppressed an urge to drag the woman to the interrogation chamber straight away. Haldraxan was busy for one thing, and for another the offer of an additional spy network roaming her country held a certain appeal.

“You are very forward with your offer Master Quick,” the Duchess said. “Are we to be privy to your entire negotiation?”

“I don’t have anything to hide from the Queen,” Merrin said. “Aside from the obvious of course.”

“And what would be obvious to hide from our host?” Baron Gedli asked.

“The true costs and profits to her operation,” Haldri said. “If we are to discuss special tariff exemptions for her guild, the guildmaster will not wish us to know how slight a slice of revenue would be enough to entice them to increase the volume of trade they bring us.”

Nor would the guildmaster want it to be known the type or quantity of the goods which Paxmer was interested in having her guild deliver. Even Gedli would grow concerned by the weapon build up Haldri was planning to order.

“You’ve got to keep some things hidden Baron,” Merrin said. “It’s just good business.”

The Baron’s eyes flashed wide at the insinuation that he had something to hide. Duchess Sanli interrupted in time to save him from the embarrassment of a reply though.

“Not all of us have the concerns of a tradesman,” Sanli said. “Or are here for more the social reasons.”

“Relations between ourselves and Gallagrin have been chilled for far too long,” Haldri said. “By our will, this will be the first of many gatherings with the tradesman and nobility of our northern sister.”

“That’s good to hear,” Merrin said. “A lot of bad blood has been spilled over that border. It makes it hard for working people to feel safe crossing it. If we’re looking at a new era of peace though, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of revenue for us to split from all the deliveries my guild will be making.”

Haldri thought of the royal blood that had recently been spilled on the far side of Gallagrin’s border. She’d held little love for her brother Halrek, but much anticipation as his plan slowly matured to fruition. They had been so close to seizing the throne of Gallagrin only to have it snatched away by some old love of the Gallagrin Queen.

Haldri would never have forgiven the monarch of Gallagrin for retaining the throne, but the body parts of Halrek that were returned to Paxmer and the insulting note which accompanied the small package left no doubt as to the divide between the two nations. There would be peace between Paxmer and Gallagrin, their animosity required it, it simply also required that one of the two monarchs be sent to hell at the earliest possible opportunity.

Haldri felt a warm joy rise in her heart at the thought of Alari Gallagrin burning in dragon fire.

“Yes,” Haldri said. “Peace is why we have called each of you here. From trade to an opening of our borders to the extending of an invitation.”

“What invitation do you wish to extend, Your Majesty?” Duchess Sanli asked, seeing her role clearly among the three options provided.

“We wish to extend a call to the Queen of Gallagrin to join us at a parley table,” Haldri said. “We would meet with her on neutral ground, at the Gods Hall, that we might discuss the rift which divides our peoples.”

“The Gods Hall?” Baron Gedli said. “Only the ruling monarchs of a realm are allowed to ascend to sky kingdom, would you really meet with our queen alone?”

“There are supposed to be enchantments on that place to prevent any violence being done there right?” Merrin asked.

“So long as the power of the Sleeping Gods hold,” Duchess Sanli said.

“Yes, which is why we hope Gallagrin will respond favorably to our entreaty,” Haldri said. “We must show the other nations of the Blessed Realms how we are able to put our history behind us.”

Dae felt Alari’s words like the deepest storm of the winter. An anger that was too old to burn hot flared to new life and spread shards of ice outwards from a hole in Dae’s heart that she’d thought sealed over long ago.

“My mother is dead,” Dae said without a hint of external emotion.

“To you, yes,” Alari said. “But to the world, she is still as she was; a faithful and living daughter of Paxmer.”

“No,” Dae said. “Never faithful. Not that woman. She can never claim to be that.”

In her eyes a fury ignited which dared even the heavens to oppose her on that point.

Alari offered no argument, no words to contradict the pain she saw in Dae’s eyes. The queen’s only expression was a tight frown to hold back the surge of emotion that echoed in her heart. She’d known Dae wouldn’t welcome memories of her mother, but she hadn’t imagined that after close to two decades the wounds would still be so raw.

“We need her.” Alari said after a long silent moment.

“Do we, Your Majesty?” Dae asked, stepping away from her Queen and struggling to keep her voice level.

“I’m not speaking as the Queen of Gallagrin, Adae, though the queen needs your mother too,” Alari said. “You and I need her in this, or I would never ask it of you.”

“Tell me why,” Dae said, turning back to face Alari, her eyes hard and her jaw set in hard lines. “You said you were going to destroy Paxmer? Why would you need her for that?”

Dae had no power to compel answers from her queen. Even in her role as Knight, Dae was not given the right to place demands on the woman she served, but in the empty garden it wasn’t a queen and a knight who stood on opposite sides of the widening void between their hearts. Alari and Dae weren’t equals in station, but they were too long together for either to think of the other as anything but of equal value. So Alari spoke, her word reaching across the space between them in a way that a command never could.

“Haldri Paxmer knows my intentions,” Alari said. “She knows I am going to bring her downfall, but to do that I need more pawns on the board than she’s aware of.”

“And you think my mother will act as pawn for you willingly?” Dae asked, wanting to listen, but not yet able to believe.

“Willingly or unwillingly, I believe that we, you and I together, can convince her to save a vast number of Gallagrin lives,” Alari said. As a queen, she couldn’t beg. She couldn’t clasp Dae’s hands and plead her case based on love or trust or respect. As Alari though, she was able to let her voice soften, not in weakness, but in hope.

Dae heard the question in Alari’s words. The woman, not the queen, asking for Dae’s trust and faith. Looking inside herself though, Dae also felt the yawning, mother-shaped void, in her heart as it cracked with the return of memories she never wanted to recall.

Betrayer, Abandoner, Murderer. So many names that stood as a substitute for “mother” that Dae couldn’t see beyond them for a moment as long forgotten screams of rage echoed in her ears and held her in a rictus of silent, motionless, hate.

“If I see her, I may kill her,” Dae said. It wasn’t a refusal anymore. She looked on the wastelands of her soul, the parts of her which remained scorched by the shame, and guilt, and sorrow, and rage at her mother’s departure and saw the limits of her own endurance.

There were rivers of anger whose depth she couldn’t plumb, and with the power she held, it wouldn’t take much loss of control, no more than a single second’s worth, for Dae to commit an irrevocably violent action upon the last person in the world she thought she could ever forgive.

“I know,” Alari said. “And if that happens, then her blood will be on my hands, not yours. I know what I am asking of you. I know the risk here. The Sleeping Gods damn me, I even know how I would turn that to our advantage.”

“If I can go with my blade unfettered…” Dae started to say and paused to compose herself. “No. This can’t be on you. My actions are my own, as is my duty. If I go, let the journey be on me. If Estella sur Korkin can save Gallagrin lives, then you have every right to command me to go.”

None of her muscles had relaxed but Dae felt a quiet calm settle over her. It was a calm devoid of peace, but it was an acceptance of what had to be nonetheless. She wasn’t the child who’d awoken to an barren house anymore. That girl’s fear no longer ruled Dae’s heart, even if the rage remained.

“I will never command you to a duty like this. I won’t allow Gallagrin to demand it of you. I can’t,” Alari said. “But I will trust you. Whatever happens, whatever you choose to do, know that you have my faith. I have held you to a promise of vengeance already, and since that means Gallagrin is in your debt I can speak as a queen once more. Know that we, Gallagrin, will carry you and support you in vengeance or forgiveness, in unity or discord, giving unto you all the powers of our judgment and voice in the matter which we lay before you. You have never failed us Lady Daelynne Akorli, and so you travel with our utmost blessing.”

“My Queen,” Dae said, bowing her head in acceptance of the formal charge.

“We have arrived at too early an hour?” whispered the wind.

Dae memories dropped away from her. On instinct she spun, placing Alari at her back and searching for the source of the words. Her ceremonial sword was in her hand without any conscious thought to draw it.

“Our apologies,” a woman of smaller and softer proportions than Dae said. She stood a short distance behind them on the path they’d walked and was dressed in the black robes and veil of a woman in mourning. Despite the startling nature of her arrival, the woman’s hands were folded peacefully in front of her, her posture was penitent, and she held no weapons. Nothing about the woman should have seemed threatening, but try though she might, Dae couldn’t put her sword away.

“You are indeed early, Lady Telli,” Alari said, a note of irritation in her voice that Dae knew only someone familiar with the queen would detect. “Did not our chamberlain offer you refreshment?”

“We did not observe your staff, Your Majesty,” Mayleena Telli said. “I fear we are in disaccord this morning.”

“We thought your condition had reached a sustainable state?” Alari asked.

“It has Your Majesty,” Mayleena said. “But there are still times when I am afraid. I apologize again for coming before you when we are like this.”

Dae squinted, trying to catch the thread of the conversation which had flown past her. Something was setting her Pact Spirit’s nerves on edge and almost nothing bothered Kirios. Neither Dae nor her mystical companion could place the source of the ‘wrongness’ they felt from the woman who refused to be the Duchess of Tel though.

Or they couldn’t until Dae noticed that where Alari spoke with the royal “we” demanded of her station, Mayleena’s use of the plural form was entirely different.

“Why are you veiled?” Dae asked, mistrusting of the disguise Mayleena wore.

“It is more comfortable,” Mayleena said.

“For who?” Dae asked.

“Those we encounter,” Mayleena said.

“You may put your weapon away, my Knight,” Alari said. “And Lady Telli, you may dispense with the veil. Lady Akorli must see and understand your condition if the two of you are to work together.”

“That is what frightens me, Your Majesty,” Mayleena said, her voice small as she reached for her veil.

Dae expected to see some hideous monstrosity waiting under the dark lace but as Mayleena lifted the cloth and exposed her face, Dae saw nothing more than a woman a few years younger than Alari. Mayleena’s features were somewhere between the hard, muscled angles that Dae had chiseled her into body through constant training and the gentle and graceful curves Alari was blessed with as the scion of a gods-touched line.

Dae forced herself to relax, willing away the irrational concern that gripped her heart. Then Mayleena opened her eyes.

Even after being named Queen’s Knight, Dae preferred, on most occasions, to transform only into her common regalia. She loved being Alari’s knight, but she had little need for the attention her full armor brought her. On most occasions the might of the Knight’s regalia was a vast degree of overkill as well.

The moment Mayleena opened her eyes though, Dae was transformed into the strongest version of her Knight’s regalia that she could summon and a new terror beat through her heart. Even with power at her disposal to rival the Queen’s, Dae wasn’t sure she was going to be strong enough.

In Mayleena’s eye, Kirios saw the steel and fire of a fully unfettered Berserker.

It was Alari’s touch on Dae’s shoulder that drew the situation back into focus though. In Mayleena’s eyes the might and madness of a unlimited Pact Spirit burned, but her body was shrunk in on itself. Trying to hide from Dae’s unkind eyes. Ashamed at what she was and so, so terribly afraid.

“What…” Dae tried to form words but it took her a second attempt to regain control of her thoughts. “What happened to you?”

Dae’s sword, her true blade, the one that dripped red with the stain of royal blood ever since she beheaded Halrek the Consort-King, vanished back into the magical aether but her armor remained.

“My father did,” Mayleena said and Dae’s heart broke anew.

Stepping forward, Dae let her armor fall away, and transformed back to her physical self.

“Lady Telli, please forgive my rudeness,” Dae said, turning to confirm her suspicions. Alari’s gentle smile told her everything she needed to know. The queen was not one to easily give her trust, but she was not afraid of Mayleena Telli. The young noble’s demeanor was no act to lure Dae into a false sense of security.

“It was our rudeness,” May said. “I’m sorry that we interrupted you.”

“I think Her Majesty and I reached an accord,” Dae said. “So the interruption doesn’t have to be an unwelcome one.”

“Indeed,” Alari said. “If you are up for it, why don’t you walk with us? There is still more of the garden we must inspect, and some little time of privacy that remains before us.”

“I would like that very much Your Majesty,” May said.

“The Queen tells me that you wish to be part of her guard?” Dae asked as the two of them fell into position behind Alari.

“If I can pass your review Lady Akorli,” May said.

“My review?” Dae asked. “I think with the monarch of the realm asking for you to be part of her personal guard, you’re pretty certain of a position.”

“I’m asking for more than the Lady Telli to be part of the Queen’s Guard though,” Alari said. “I believe she will be invaluable on the mission we were discussing.”

Wheels began spinning in Dae’s mind as she turned to look at Alari. Sending the Queen’s Knight to Paxmer was a bold move. Sending whatever Mayleena Telli had become was the sort of act one took when one expected an inconvenient army or two or three to be in the way and you wanted to eliminate them with a minimum of fuss.

“In that case I believe we should retire to the Royal Study and the queen will need to break out some of the wine she reserves for her special guests,” Dae said. “Because we have a lot to talk about.”

Alari, Queen of Gallagrin and Supreme Protector of the Divine Throne of Highcrest, wandered through her southern gardens trailing her fingers along the barbed vines which would burst into a riot of color and rich scents within a few weeks.

“I thought you were going to burn these things to the ground?” Dae, her Knight and dearest love, said.

“I tried,” Alari said, drawing her hand back slowly, before the hungry thorns could claim a drop of royal blood from her fingers. “The screams were a little much though.”

“Screams?” Dae asked. Her hand strayed to the ceremonial sword she wore at her waist. Alari’s Knight wasn’t a superstitious sort, but no one could discount that Castle Highcrest was haunted, especially in the wake of the Butcher King’s residence. Dae didn’t fear ghosts, but she was ever so slightly over protective of her liege.

“It turns out that the legends are true,” Alari said, walking to a thick cord of interwoven dark and pale green strands. On the vine’s tiny branches the first hints of brilliant buds, from an almost white pastel orange at the top of the vine to dark and vibrant dots of red on the branches at the vine’s base, were beginning to peek forth from their winter slumber. “This garden was watered in the blood of thousands during my father’s reign. The plants drank up the reddened soil and should have withered but instead they changed. They’re quiet now, still asleep, but in the  spring and summer and fall they sing.”

“Your south garden is full of blood drinking plants?” Dae asked. “That sing?”

“Yes,” Alari said. “Hundreds of different songs. I thought they would all be dirges and laments, but it turns out those are few and far between.”

“And they scream too?” Dae asked.

“Only if you burn them,” Alari said. “Or uproot them. And it’s not just one of them. Pull up a single rose and all of the rest scream.”

“So they’re lovely and disturbing,” Dae said. “I see why you kept them.”

“The amusing thing is that they never sang for my father,” Alari said.

“I seem to recall them moaning a lot,” Dae said. “We scared ourselves silly the first time we snuck in here.”

“To be fair, I was scared silly,” Alari said. “You had a look on your face that said you were ready to chop them to kindling. It looked almost exactly like the one you’re wearing now.”

“I’m not wearing an expression now,” Dae said. “This is how I normally look.”

“Yes, like you’re ready to chop something or someone to kindling,” Alari said.

“Not ready,” Dae said. “Just willing to, if need be.”

Alari laughed lightly and swept away from her knight to inspect another of the plants; a low and long shrub with the early signs of white and blue blossoms. It had been sculpted to look a series of stylized ocean waves but the rampant overgrowth after the chaos of the previous autumn left the waves looking more naturalistic and powerful than the designer might have intended. Alari had no intention of allowing anyone to change the shrubs appearance back to the original design though.

“You are a dangerous person to have around, my Adae,” Alari said.

“Yes,” Dae said. “I just hope your enemies are aware of that.”

“You are dangerous because my enemies are aware of that,” Alari said. “They’ll come for you next, before they come for me.”

Dae flexed her hands and cracked her knuckles.

“That sounds delightful to me,” she said.

Alari sighed and looked away, caressing the shrub and letting its tiny spurs dig into the palm of her hand.

“That’s the one order I can’t give you, isn’t it?” Alari asked.

“What?” Dae asked, walking up to her queen and touching Alari lightly on the shoulder.

“I can’t order you to protect yourself before me,” Alari said. “Or from me.”

“My queen,” Dae said. “As your knight, I can never put you anywhere except first before all others, most definitely including myself.”

“But…” Alari began before Dae cut her off.

“And even if I wasn’t your knight,” Dae said. “I can’t risk losing you. It’s greedy, and it’s selfish, and I don’t care. In protecting you, I’m protecting myself too. You saw the state I fell into when we were apart, and that was when I could cling to the hope that you were doing fine without me. There is so much farther down I could go if you were lost for real.”

“Don’t,” Alari said. “Let me at least command you there. You don’t get to be the only one who’s selfish and greedy. I have to think of the whole kingdom in every other choice I make, give me at least this; if I fall, if I’m lost, do not follow me down. I don’t care if this isn’t fair to ask of you, but if I die, you have to live. And live well.”

“You are truly cruel, you know that don’t you?” Dae asked. “Dying for you is such a simple proposition. Living is complicated, and if I’m going to do that, I insist that I not have to do it alone.”

“I have plans to die when the reaper has lost count of the winters I’ve seen,” Alari said. “I envision being asleep in a comfy bed in a far away cabin, while the successor of my successor’s successor rules the kingdom with peace and prosperity for all.”

“I can allow that,” Dae said. “Provided I am in the cabin to fight the reaper when they arrive.”

Alari rolled her eyes and laughed.

“Well enough, my knight,” she said. “I shall hold you to that promise at least then. As we come upon dire hours where hope seems lost, you will remember the goodly cottage we shall build in our age and infirmity, and remember that you are bound to this life until our bones can rest together there.”

“You are a wise queen, my lady,” Dae said. “That is a promise I can bind myself to freely and without reservation.”

“Good,” Alari said, quiet and serious for a moment. “Though, would you say the same if I asked you as myself, rather than commanded it as your queen?”

“Alari,” Dae said, “You have always been more than my princess, and more than my queen. I am bound to you by more than duty, and more than rank, and more than any promise you could ever ask of me. You are Gallagrin’s Queen, and are owned in part by all it’s people, but while my mind knows that, in my greedy heart, we are still young and the cares of the kingdom are far away and your are mine and I am yours.”

“I’m not worthy of you, my Adae,” Alari said. “You give me so much of yourself and I can only give you the parts of me which Gallagrin has not already stolen away.”

“Gallagrin has taken nothing from you that matters,” Dae said. “I know there are parts of your life that I can never share, burdens which I can never help you carry, commitments that must come first before me.  Those don’t matter though. They’ve never mattered. They’re a part of what it means to be in your life, and I accepted that a long time ago. You are worth that price.”

“And now who is the cruel one?” Alari asked, wiping a tear from her eye.

“You,” Dae said. “Definitely you. Because I know you’re going to ask me to do something terrible next.”

“It’s not terrible,” Alari said. “Or at least not physically painful. But before I get to that, tell me of the new candidate you’ve found?”

“I cannot express how much ‘not physically painful’ is failing to reassure me,” Dae said. “So, yes, let’s talk about Lady Lafli.”

“This is Jyl, not Jain, correct?” Alari asked.

“You know your noble families better than I remember,” Dae said.

“A necessary evil of ruling them,” Alari said. “Minor families have the same basic needs as major ones and can be a stronger base if they’re united.”

“You always did like having more chess pieces on the board didn’t you?” Dae asked.

“It’s the easiest way to win,” Alari said.

“Unless your opponent notices that you have seven rooks in play,” Dae said.

“I only used that gambit once,” Alari said. “It turns out pawns are much harder for your opponent to keep track of.”

“Jyl is definitely not a pawn,” Dae said. “She earned her Pact Spirit the hard way.”

“Stole it from another family?” Alari asked.

“No,” Dae said. “She quested for it. Found one of the old ruins, ventured in deeper than anyone else had gone before and woke the spirit that was sleeping there.”

“With a young spirit her powers must be significantly limited,” Alari said.

“They should be, but that’s not what I’ve observed so far,” Dae said. “It’s possible that either the spirit has had previous bearers before it dropped into slumber, or that she’s a prodigy with working magic. Or, and this is my guess, both are the case.”

“You were looking for more than just skill and power though I believe,” Alari said, resuming her walk through the garden.

“Yes, and that’s why I want her as part of your guard,” Dae said. “Her thoughts are slippery and sneaky. She’s not concerned about winning so much as achieving her objectives.”

“That seems a rather fine distinction to draw,” Alari said.

“It’s the difference between trying to score a point and making sure if you wind up on the ground that you’re foe goes down too,” Dae said. Alari’s pace was a relaxing one, designed to draw out their time alone together as long it could reasonably be stretched. In theory, since they were in a secure location, Dae should have walked several paces behind her queen, but Alari had disallowed that sort of nonsense since the first day they met. Instead, the two women walked side by side, each dutifully not staring at the other.

“You wish my personal guard to prioritize defeating my foes by any means necessary rather than performing their duties to the technical limit of what is required of them?” Alari asked.

“That’s the general idea,” Dae said, and then winced. “And I am going to regret saying that before this conversation is over aren’t I?”

“I could lie if that would calm your nerves?” Alari said.

“Please do,” Dae said.

“Alas, to you, I will never lie, my Knight,” Alari said.

“You are fortunate that I love you so dearly, my Queen,” Dae said. “So much that I would never imagine mixing Inchesso Mudbloom into the royal hair tonics.”

“I thought it was your duty to protect my body from all forms of harm?” Alari asked.

“Indeed it is, dear liege,” Dae said. “But who can say that you wouldn’t appear most fetching with blue and green streaks in the royal mane?”

“I believe I know who shall be testing the royal tonics before I next use them,” Alari said.

“As you command, Your Majesty,” Dae said, bowing low with a delighted grin on her face.

“You are a wicked knight,” Alari said.

“Yes,” Dae said. “Every bit as wicked as you need me to be.”

“Then perhaps you’ll enjoy what I have to ask you,” Alari said. “I need someone to infiltrate Paxmer. And it needs to be someone of unparalleled skill whom I can trust with more than my life.”

“I hate the idea of being parted from you,” Dae said. “It worked out rather poorly the last time we tried it seven years ago, but if it means eliminating a threat to you before it can cross into Gallagrin in the first place, you need only name the target.”

“It’s not that simple,” Alari said.

Dae sighed.

“It never is, is it?” she said.

“I’m going to destroy Paxmer,” Alari said, without breaking her stride or placing any more emphasis on the words than if she’d announced what she was going to have for breakfast.

“That’s understandable,” Dae said. “Am I to start slaying them from a particular point in the country or shall I begin with the largest obstacles and work down from there?”

“Your blade has shed all of the Paxmer blood I need it to,” Alari said. “And for this mission, you will need more than Kirios for support.”

“Kirios and I can do quite a lot together,” Dae said.

“Yes, including save my kingdom and my position in it,” Alari said. “But this venture will require more than one of the Queen’s Guard.”

“Jyl is untrained,” Dae said. “She’ll learn fast, but I don’t think she’ll be able to handle more than a tenth of Paxmer or so on her own.”

“It is fortunate then that I have another candidate for you to review for the Queen’s Guard,” Alari said.

“Who?” Dae asked. “I thought I saw all of the candidates for the Royal Guard this year?”

“You did,” Alari said. “The person I speak of is Mayleena Telli.”

Dae stopped short, and shook her head to make sure she’d heard Alari correctly.

“The Duchess of Tel?” she asked. “Duke Telli’s daughter?”

“She still refuses her title,” Alari said. “But she has sworn her allegiance to me directly.”

“What took her so long?” Dae asked. “I thought we were going to have to root her out of Elinspire with a team of wild horses.”

“I doubt very much the horses would have come away from the encounter in a serviceable state,” Alari said.

“Why will I need her help?” Dae asked.

“Because you will need at least two ladies in waiting,” Alari said. “Any less than that and it will seem suspicious when you call upon your mother in Paxmer.”

Jyl Lafli wasn’t supposed to have a Pact Spirit. She knew that. Her family knew that. Everyone who’d ever met her knew that.

The Lafli family were minor nobles, more honored army captains than true nobility. As such, they were entitled to bear arms for the crown and rely on the crown’s funds to support them in a lifestyle which would be considered lavish for a peasant but only barely adequate for true nobility.

Families like the Lafli’s weren’t uncommon in Gallagrin. Between the threats of border fighting that had gone on since the formation of Gallagrin and the various non-sapient monsters that lurked within the dark corners of the kingdom there was always the need for a plentiful supply of soldiers and skilled captains. Good fighters could demand high pay for the work they did but Gallagrin found it useful to offset some of that expense with the social prestige and privilege that came with a noble title.

The Lafli’s had been as pleased with the arrangement as any other family. There were things which gold alone could not buy one access too after all, and like many of the lesser families the Lafli’s had seen their title as the stepping stone to consolidation with a larger, more influential family through marriage or treaty.

Those dreams had come crashing to earth with the coronation of Alari, the Red Handed Queen because, like many others, the Lafli’s had aligned themselves with the wrong faction in the civil war.

In their defense, in the early days of Alari’s revolt against her father, her cause had seemed like a dangerous gamble at best. King Sathe held ancient power at his fingertips both in the Pact Spirit of Gallagrin and in the defense of Highcrest. Those advantages were layered on top of a strong reserve of Royal troops and the armies of many of the country’s noble houses. Viewed with a coldly analytical eye, the Lafli’s could be forgiven for siding with the known power of the legitimately crowned King of Gallagrin.

And so they were. One of Alari’s first acts as Queen was a review of those who had sided with her father during the war. Most of her enemies were granted pardons or forgiven their misplaced loyalties. Alari had inherited a realm divided and painted in deep shades of kin-shed blood. Healing the wounds that she had helped cause, and lancing out the truly depraved malignancies that had grown in the course of her father’s reign had been the focus of Alari’s early years as queen.

It was work that ongoing as well, though some forgivenesses came slower than others.

In Jyl’s case, the Lafli family had been reinstated to their traditional position, but requests for new Pact Spirits had been stonewalled. There were fewer available in the wake of the war when so many had geared up for combat. Those men and women who’d taken on full or partial pact bindings had settled into quieter lives, but the spirits they were bound to were with them for the rest of their lives.

Neither Jyl nor her twin sister Jain were even interviewed to become Pact Warriors. As scions of a lesser house, they would have normally held the right to compete for a full Pact Spirit binding. The families who had allied with Princess Alari in the civil war were given priority though and in the time of shortage that meant few of those who didn’t stand with her were granted the opportunity to advance.

Jyl had looked at her position and seen that she was destined to be part of a generation which fell behind. It wasn’t fair, but she’d also seen, even as a young girl, what life under the Butcher King had been like. From the partial understanding she had as a child and the stories she collected as an adult, she couldn’t fault the Queen for her actions. Gallagrin had been injured by the civil war. There were great pains which the country was in the process of healing, and that healing had come at great price, both to Gallagrin and to Jyl’s family, but it had been worth it.

That wasn’t a popular opinion to hold in the Lafli family. Jyl’s two eldest uncles and six of her cousins had perished in the war. Jyl didn’t see that as Queen Alari’s fault. It had been her grandfather’s decision to openly support King Sathe in an attempt to wedge the family deeper into the King’s good graces.

Once upon a time, she’d hated her grandfather for that decision. That had been an easy path to take when her mother returned home from the first campaign of the war with horror stories of the manner in which the King’s forces were made to fight.

Her mother had refused to return to battle and had been disowned from the family for cowardice but in Jyl’s eyes no braver woman had ever lived.

That was why she’d refused to give up when she grew old enough to call for a pact bonding.

The noble families of Gallagrin held the runic stones on which were inscribed the true names of the Pact Spirits that were passed down from generation to generation. Those were not the only Pact Spirits one could call upon though. When the Sleeping Gods walked the earth they crafted many spirits and set them to many tasks. Once those tasks were completed, the spirits either returned to the god who formed them, or fell into a slumber of their own, usually within something they were invested in.

With no ancestral Pact Spirit to call her own, Jyl had been required to forge her destiny and seek out one on her own. All the work that had gone into that though, all the trials she’d overcome and in the end she’d failed anyways.

“You didn’t fail,” Daelynne Akorli said, throwing a dry towel to the small, sweat covered girl.

“I didn’t make it to the top,” Jyl said, wiping her face dry and uttering a silent prayer that her workout had left her flushed. Standing before the Queen’s Knight, the daughter of the Lafli family felt every bit as insignificant as she’d ever imagined herself to be. Being able to hide her embarrassment behind her labored breathing was an unexpected mercy on a trip that had seen her hopes crushed under the weight of her own inadequacy.

“The test wasn’t to get to the top of the mountain,” the Queen’s Knight said. “I was looking for something else there. Can you tell me what that was?”

Jyl hid her face in the towel for a moment to buy herself time to think.

They’d been tasked to climb a mountain without the use of their Pact Spirits. So it was a test of their bodies, rather than their mystical might. Except the Queen’s Knight was saying that she hadn’t failed. So not her body then, which she knew to be woefully unprepared for the task, but perhaps her spirit?

“You wanted to see if we would give up?” Jyl asked.

“I wanted to see a lot of things. That was one of them. What else though?”

Jyl tried to remember the climb. The long, brutal climb. What had it shown about the applicants?

“If we would cheat, if we could take orders,” Jyl said working through the question as she spoke. “You wanted to see how we would approach an obstacle like that. One that we weren’t trained for.”

“Yeah, you didn’t fail at all,” the Queen’s Knight said.

“But I gave up,” Jyl said. “Before the storm.”

“Let’s talk about that. Why were you climbing after the storm?”

“I hadn’t reached the top yet,” Jyl said. “I was hoping if I continued on I wouldn’t be too late, but then you and the others came down first.”

“And why did you turn back?”

“The storm was too close,” Jyl said. “I knew I wasn’t going to make it and I didn’t want anyone to have to risk themselves rescuing me.”

“Flying’s pretty fun too isn’t it?” The Queen’s Knight handed Jyl a canteen filled with a sweet and slightly salty beverage.

“I’m not very good with it,” Jyl said, draining the canteen. She was thirstier than she’d noticed, which wasn’t necessarily a good sign. Checking in with her pact spirit, Jyl saw that her companion was feeding her a slow trickle of magic to ward off the effects of mild dehydration.

“You reached the base camp and didn’t break any bones. Somedays that’s good enough.”

“It’s difficult to practice with,” Jyl said, finding it easier to talk about the intricacies pact magic with the legendary Knight than about personal matters, especially personal failings. “It takes so much magic to power the wings that it’s hard to have any left for control.”

“I can give you some pointers on that,” the Lady Akorli said. “The most basic trick is to use the air around you rather than fight with it.”

“Thank you,” Jyl said. “I’ll probably need to go back to my family in a few days though won’t I?”

“That all depends,” Dae said and took her cloak off. “Want to go a round?”

“With you?” Jyl asked, coughing in surprise.

“Yeah, light sparring,” Dae said. “We don’t have to count points, I’m just curious about something.”

Jyl’s mind went fuzzy for a moment, but her mouth blessedly worked on its own.

“Yes! Certainly!” she said.

The two women stepped into one of the open sparring circles and a crowd began to gather to watch them. This did nothing to alleviate Jyl’s nervousness but at least when she got her butt handed to her no one was going to say it was because she was weak.

All I have to do is last till the end of the round, she told herself, knowing that even a simple action like that would win her back the respect that her trick on the mountain had cost her.

“When you’re ready,” Dae said and in the blink of an eye the Queen’s Knight was garbed in a set of basic grey steel armor, fitting for a senior guardsman perhaps.

Sharply aware that she had to make the most of the time given to her, Jyl followed suit and transformed in a blink into the strongest, fastest armor she could conjure forth.

Dae offered a cheerful salute, and assumed a basic ready stance with her sword held in front of her.

Jyl knew an instructor’s invitation to begin a battle when she saw one. She’d trained too long in various fighting arts under her mother’s tutelage to miss either the opening that was provided or the various traps for the unwary who tried for too aggressive an offense.

When she was a young girl, Jyl had tried any number of wild and unpredictable openings but time and experience had taught her that, against a more experienced foe, wild opening attacks translated to wildly unpredictable gaps in her defense which her foe was better able to see than she was.

Her initial attack therefore was a probing series of blows. The first few lacked commitment and served to simply ask how aggressive the Queen’s Knight intended to be. If Dae had answered them with a blistering offense, Jyl was in her best position to fall back and parry any blows that were sent towards her.

Dae’s response was measured though. She had the height and reach advantage on her foe and wasn’t going to be drawn into over committing herself easily.

With every nerve singing with excitement, Jyl stepped up the pace of the battle. Her armor was focused on granting her speed over strength, but she was small enough that even the mild improvement of her physique allowed her to project force that seemed out of place with her stature.

Dae wasn’t fooled by the size disparity though. Any experienced Pact fighter was used to discounting their opponents appearance when it came to evaluating their capabilities. Despite that though, Jyl’s speed did take Dae off guard.

Pressing her advantage, the smaller fighter stepped in quickly and bound Dae’s sword arm in a grapple. Jyl wasn’t able to hold the grapple longer than a second, but that was enough time to get in a long slash across Dae’s back and a stab into the armor of Dae’s upper arm.

Neither attack penetrated Dae’s armor, but Jyl felt wildly ecstatic that she’d managed to land the blows at all.

Her delight turned to terror as she saw that she’d left herself open for a takedown to the floor and that Dae looked to have every intention of driving her into the earth.

Jyl rolled at the last fraction of a second, taking Dae down with her but managing to ensure that they landed on the ground side by side.

A whistle blew, signaling the end of the round and Jyl danced up to her feet breathless and blown away by the struggle. She’d expected to be unconscious, or at least knocked out of the ring and instead she’d landed two blows and escaped a grapple. She wasn’t certain but she thought that if she died that very moment, she’d leave a very happy ghost behind.

Then it got better.

“I was going to offer you a job, but after that display it’s not an offer anymore,” Dae said. “Pack your things, you’re coming to work with me.”

Of the many meeting rooms and presentations halls and audience chambers in the grand castle of Highcrest, Dae had never foreseen herself sitting in the Memory Room. With the everburning pyre of divine fire that sat in the center of the room, it was easy to believe the legends that claimed no lies could be uttered by those seated at the spirit-etched central table that ringed the heavenly bonfire.

The Memory Room was, again according to legend, where the Gallagrin’s Spirit Intercessor was entombed. When the Sleeping Gods fell into their great (and presumably eternal) slumber, the auxiliary spirits which they maintained largely fell into the godsleep with them. The Spirit Intercessor had once been the one who communicated with Gallagrin’s ruler on whatever divine matters the crown was meant to pursue.

In the centuries since the Intercessor went down to slumber in the earth, the room where they were spoken too had become one of the highest level planning rooms in the castle. The myth that no lies could be told in the Intercessor’s presence was less believed to be a magical geas and more a warning that was best heeded by anyone who didn’t wish to invoke the Intercessor’s wrath.

“Thank you for joining us today,” Alari said, addressing the four men and women she’d assembled for what Dae thought of as a pre-War Council.

“We are a surprisingly small group, Your Majesty,” General Karlin Limli said. “With the immanence of spring, I thought you might be inclined to summon the full council to discuss the possibility of an early campaign?”

Dae steepled her hand in front of her mouth to cover a smile. Karlin was as delightfully direct as Alari had warned Dae he would be. That directness was clearly attributable to his position.He was the senior commander of the Southern Royal Armies, the same Southern Royal Armies which had endured the worst of the fighting with Paxmer six years previously and on earlier occasions during the Butcher King’s reign. Karlin hadn’t been the commander of the crown’s southern forces until after Alari took the throne, but he’d still been shaped by the pressure of holding Gallagrin’s most vulnerable border despite the lack of overt attacks on it during his tenure.

“Just the reverse General,” Alari said. “We do not wish to wage either an early campaign or a late one this year.”

“Forgive me, Your Majesty,” Karlin said, “but I don’t believe Paxmer is going to allow you a choice in that matter.”

“Paxmer can’t do anything to us,” Admiral Yonda Kemere said. “Not on land at least.”

As the senior commander for the Gallagrin navy, Yonda’s dismissal of land-based threats was as common as it was understandable.

“That’s not what our spies are telling us,” Karlin said. “Paxmer’s been building up stockpiles of weapons and armor for years.”

“You didn’t need spies to tell you that,” Yonda said. “Just ask anyone in one of my ships. We’re the ones those weapons are getting used on!”

“Bah, you just run away on the wind,” Karlin said. “That’s not an option when you’ve got an army in front of you and your house behind you.”

“Paxmer is a threat,” Alari said. “We acknowledge that and grant both of you your concerns. It is still our desire that no formal levy of royal or noble troops be made this coming season.”

“If you acknowledge the threat, you must act on it Your Majesty,” Karlin said. “If we leave Paxmer the option of taking the initiative we’ll lose every keep, fort, and border town that we have along our entire southern expanse.”

“That sounds bad, but I’m sorry to say that the Navy’s needs are more dire than that,” Yonda said. “You’ve seen the reports haven’t you Your Majesty? We’re not facing wood and steel on the waves any longer.”

“What do you mean?” Karlin asked. “Has Paxmer put new ships into the sea?”

“No,” Alari said. “They’re simply crewing their existing ships with new weapons.”

“We face dragons on the borders Your Majesty,” Karlin said. “Whatever they’re throwing at the navy, it can’t be as bad as that.”

“It can be exactly as bad as that,” Sir Faen Kemoral, the commander of the Royal Guard, said. The Royal Guard were, essentially, one of the Royal Armies but their command structure reported directly to the crown rather than to a General and while the Royal Guard’s charter called for them to secure the capital and provide for the defense of the royal city, history had stretched the definition of the areas they were allowed to work in to include acting as special supplementary troops in any area where danger might arise that could threaten the crown.

“What’s as bad as a dragon?” Karlin asked.

“Another dragon,” Yonda said. “That’s what they’ve been sending against us!”

“I can confirm that,” Faen said. “I’ve lost a full squad and a half trying to safeguard shipments sent from the Sunlost Isles.”

“Those squads were on only two of the seven ships which have been sunk in the last three months,” Yonda said. “We can’t run away on the wind when we’ve got dragons in front of us and slow moving cargo ships sailing in our wake.”

“How are they getting dragons out onto the water?” Karlin asked. “That’s impossible. Paxmer dragons can only live in Paxmer.”

“We have tasked some of our scholars to answer that question,” Alari said. “Their belief is that so long as the ships remain under Paxmer control, the vessel counts as ‘Paxmer territory’ and thus the dragons can abide there.”

“That’s an enormous risk though,” Karlin said. “And dragons aren’t risk taking creatures.”

“The ones that live to an old age aren’t,” Yonda said. “These are young ones though.”

“That’s a poor turn of fortune then.” Karlin said. “But I am still unclear on why we’ve been assembled here?”

“Gallagrin faces many problems,” Alari said. “The threat of invasion is real, although the form it will take is likely not the one we are familiar with. The challenge to our claim on the sea is real, and the solution to it is one which does not present itself readily. You are not hear to discuss Gallagrin’s problems though. You are here to discuss the solutions to Gallagrin’s problems.”

“The solution I recommend is an early assault into Paxmer territory,” Karlin said. “If we strike deep and hard, we can force their hand and make them play out the campaign seasons of the year in response to us. If we make them focus on mitigating the damage we’re doing, we can keep them from having the time or resources to do damage to us in return.”

“That is a tried and tested strategy,” Alari said. “But it falls short for our needs on this occasion. Firstly because it requires too great a commitment of forces, forces which we do not have and cannot raise without doing material harm to the Duchys of the south.”

“The crown has imposed troop levies on the populace since the first time it was worn,” Karlin said.

“Troops levied for defensive battles enjoy the benefits which Gallagrin provides us,” Alari said. “We are not an easy country to assault. Soldiers fed into the plains of Paxmer will not be sheltered by our mountains, or protected by the creatures with which we hold unspoken truces. But there is another reason an assault on Paxmer will fail.”

“The troops would be green,” Karlin said. “I know the limitation of our forces but I ask that you have faith in our people. It may cost them, but they can see a campaign such as this through to the end.”

“It will be a bitter end for all if we allow them to go,” Alari said. “Even should they return home in victory, there would be no food awaiting them.”

“No food?” Karlin asked. “But the restoration of the farmlands has been the crown’s primary concern since your rule began. How can the farmers still be lagging at their work?”

“They are not,” Alari said. “Our fields are restored and produced full crops last year.”

“They must have,” Yonda said. “We shipped more goods in the fall than we have in years.”

“And therein lies the problem,” Alari said. “In his bid for the throne, Halrek needed a war chest. Those funds came from authorizing the sale of not only our storable crops last year but also the future sale of the crops this year promises to produce.”

“That’s insane,” Karlin said. “Why should we be bound by the actions of that lunatic?”

“Because he accepted payment for the crops from Senkin, Sunlost, Inchesso and Authzang. Payment which we have as yet failed to locate,” Alari said.

“Can we deliver the crops and not starve if the farmers remain on their land?” Faen asked.

“Our advisors believe so,” Alari said. “Halrek was borrowing from the future, not seeking to destroy it.”

“And if we renege on the contract?” Karlin asked.

“In the worst case, we’ll be facing invasion from more than just Paxmer,” Alari said. “A more likely course however would be that Paxmer’s campaign against us would gain the support of the countries with whom we broke faith.”

“So either we face an invasion with too few troops or we face several invasions with troops who will starve at the end of the fighting?” Karlin asked. “That does not paint a picture which offers many solutions, Your Majesty.”

“It sounds like my request for larger squads of marines is not one you’re willing to entertain either?” Yonda asked.

“In the face of dragon fire, more troops do not strike us as a workable answer,” Alari said. “Neither is abandoning our place on the waves though. There is too much we cannot produce within our borders and too few fair markets across our neighbor’s borders.”

“It sounds as though you want it all, Your Majesty,” Faen said. “A secure country, prosperous citizens and good relations with those we border.”

“You are correct Sir Kemoral,” Alari said.

“But not with Paxmer. certainly?” Karlin asked.

“With Paxmer, we will be on the best of terms,” Alari said. “But it will not be the Paxmer which stands today.”

“I do not take your meaning, You Majesty?” Karlin said.

“Then allow us to be clear,” Alari said. “Paxmer invaded our country. They violated  the sanctity of our realm, our person, and our holy trust. We do not forgive them for this.”

Dae wasn’t certain, but she thought the eternal flame burning at the center of the room flared steadily brighter as Alari spoke.

“Paxmer thinks they want a war with us,” Alari said. “They think they can weaken us with their stratagems and then march their troops in to claim dominion over our realm. They are patient and cunning and, given time, they would be correct.”

Dae flicked her gaze from Alari to the eternal flame and saw that she was correct. It was glowing ever brighter the more the Queen of Gallagrin spoke.

“That is why we will not give them time,” Alari said.

The light from the eternal flame was mirrored in by the white elements of the royal regalia to the point where Alari was surrounded by a nimbus of faint light.

“We will wage no early or late campaign against Paxmer this season,” Alari said. “What we will do to Paxmer will be no sort of campaign at all. We are going to destroy our enemy utterly. Paxmer called us to war six years ago and set the terms as a battle of subterfuge and betrayal.”

In the eternal flame, Dae saw the shape of a figure starting to form, as though the fire were a messenger recording a royal proclamation.

“We accept those terms,” Alari said. “If Paxmer wishes to see how far the Red Handed Queen will go to secure her realm then we will be glad to educate them as we educated our father on that matter.”

Queen Haldri Paxmer escorted her guests into an interrogation chamber the size of gladiatorial arena.

“We afford you a rare honor today,” Haldri said to her three visitors from Gallagrin. “It is not often that we take a personal hand in the dispensation of our court’s justice.”

In the center of the grand, dark stone room, a man lay strapped to an inclined table. To his left, a pit of coals glowed bright orange. Various implements were heating in the fire, but from the burns on the man’s body it looks as though he was already well acquainted with them.

“And what has this poor wretch done to deserve your royal attention?” Baron Gedli asked.

The Baron was a simple man. He aspired to be a wise commander, but his wisdom was born out of fear. He feared for his family. He feared for the people he commanded and the people he was sworn to protect. He feared for them so much that he walked willingly into the stronghold of his enemy and offered his surrender without ever being aware of what he was doing.

It helped sustain his delusion that he was entering into a peaceful covenant with Paxmer rather than betraying Gallagrin when Haldri invited him to attend her as an honored guest rather than demanding his supplication and surrender in the face of her undeniable might. The truth was that both parties knew the fate which awaited Gedli’s garrison keep on the day when Paxmer found it expedient to move against Gallagrin in force. Since the Baron was capable of swallowing wildly blatant lies however, Haldri felt the need to impress upon him in a visceral manner what happened to those who invoked her wrath.

The man strapped to the table, the bandit who had earned the queen’s displeasure, didn’t move or react as the interrogation party drew near, but his labored breathing gave away the fact that he was still alive. Haldri made a note to have her Chief Interrogator brought up for review. The prisoner’s case had been escalated to her attention but there was still basic work that could have been done on him. Even a cursory glance revealed that the subject still possessed all of his digits and that suggested other techniques had been abbreviated or skipped entirely.

Haldri expected better workmanship when it came to dealing with those who gave offense to her or her realm than what she saw before her. She could grant that her method of interrogation was more certain than anything the Chief Interrogator could manage but her time was too precious to be squandered on cleaning up his half performed duties.

“This one was accused of banditry,” Haldri said, drawing a red hot poker from the fire beside the man. It had been used but only sparingly so far, as though that were some form of mercy?

“I take it you don’t have many bandits in Paxmer?” Master Merrin Quick asked. As the head of a Gallagrin-based transportation guild, Merrin was drawn to focus on the elements in Paxmer that could impact the safety or viability of moving goods through the country. Particularly, goods that were illicit in Gallagrin. Haldri smiled at that. Of the queen’s three guests, Merrin was the most blatantly mercenary. It was refreshing. The woman had levers to pull, and she didn’t try to hide them. Instead she put a price tag on each one and made no attempt at pretending to be anything except what she was.

“You will find our highways and tolls free of the perils which plague your country’s thoroughfares,” Haldri said. “The harshness of the punishments we inflict serve as a shield to all of those who abide by our rule.”

“And yet you don’t make a spectacle of the punishment?” Duchess Sanli asked. She watched the Paxmer queen with unfeigned interest. Haldri saw in Sanli’s eyes a hunger for the sort of definitive power which a queen wielded. Sanli was, from everything Haldri could see, a kindred soul. The two of them, duchess and queen, had minds which sought power before all else and security of that power second. All of the rest of life was either an amusement or a means to discover exploitable weaknesses in others.

On a personal level, the Duchess of San was the guest Haldri most enjoyed entertaining. The two women could speak for hours at length with little in terms of fundamental disagreements to come between them.

That was why Haldri trusted the Duchess of San the least of any person present, and that included the bandit who had sworn a life oath to destroy the Paxmer Queen.

Haldri was willing to work with the Duchess of San, but Gallagrin was a pit of scorpions, as her brother Halrek’s fate had proven. Even scorpions could be useful tools when properly employed but careful handling was always required.

“The spectacle comes during the trial and after the interrogation is concluded,” Haldri said. “Our techniques are not for anyone to see, only their results.”

“People see a lot of dead bodies,” Merrin said. “Anyone with the guts to rob a queen isn’t going to let a little thing like a full body mauling slow them down.”

“Those who are found guilty of stealing from the crown of Paxmer or its people are not slain,” Haldri said. “That would be a waste of a perfectly good resource.”

“What do you do with them?” Baron Gedli asked.

“We let them go,” Haldri said. The Duchess of San smiled, understanding the implications of that, but Merrin frowned. The guildmaster was clever enough to see where the queen’s words were leading them but she lacked a frame of reference to judge the impact the queen’s interrogation could have on a subject.

“That doesn’t seem like it would dissuade further banditry,” Baron Gedli said. He was struggling to understand how showing what he assumed to be mercy could stand in for making the hard calls that were required to keep lawlessness in check. Haldri was more than willing to let that misconception stand until Gedli saw the final results of the interrogation.

“Are you not dissuaded?” the queen asked the bandit.

Predictably, the man didn’t answer. His will was unbroken and he had nothing to gain by answering questions the queen posed to him. Or rather he had nothing to gain until she casually traced the glowing poker up the inside of his bare leg.

Haldri didn’t watch the man’s reaction to the pain. It was too predictable. Instead, she glanced at her guests and measured their appetites for tableau before them.

Gedli scowled, his jaw rigid in suppressed empathy with the captive.

Merrin’s gaze by contrast showed only a clinical sort of interest. What was happening held neither profit nor loss for her. The uniqueness of the event lent the act of observing it interest but given enough time that would wane and Haldri guessed that Merrin would find the affair nothing more than dull.

It was Sanli’s attention that surprised the queen though. Haldri had expected the Duchess to be delighted by the occasion. The queen didn’t indulge in torture as a general recreation but when her duties called for it, she’d always found a certain thrill in taking a personal role in meting out her kingdom’s justice. For a moment it struck Haldri as odd that Sanli would disdain corporal punishment, but then the Duchess flashed Haldri a small smile and gestured with her eyes for the queen to continue.

Haldri applied the poker again, and saw another smile light across Sanli’s face. Haldri’s lips parted in appreciative understanding a moment later. Sanli’s frown hadn’t been one of disapproval for the proceedings but rather disapproval of the lazy technique the queen employed.

The man rambled off some pain addled diatribe against Haldri’s reign to which she paid little attention. “You are the true bandit” and other ridiculous claims tumbled out between the man’s screams as though he was hoping to goad the queen into killing him in a rage and ending his misery.

A younger Haldri might have fallen prey to that strategy. Even with more than a decade behind her on the throne, the Haldri who held the poker felt surges of bloodlust tremble down to her fingertips with each word the man spoke. Age brought self control though. What lay in store for the man was far worse than anything Haldri could do even if she was given every tool and toxin she could imagine.

“You are right good Baron,” Haldri said, pausing from her work. “This one’s will is intact. If we release him now, he will grow to be as terrible a thorn in our side as he can manage to be. Worse still, he will inspire others in his revolt.”

“Then you will end him?” Baron Gedli asked.

“No,” Haldri said. “He will depart this chamber alive and free.”

“How can you allow that? Is it because even at his worse he’ll have so little power to affect you and yours?” Gedli asked.

“Only a fool would think that an enemy could never harm them,” Duchess Sanli said. “And the Queen of Paxmer is no fool at all.”

“I’m noticing how big this chamber is,” Merrin said. “Interesting given that I only see one interrogation table in here.”

“You are very observant guildmaster,” Haldri said. “But now we are afraid we must bid you leave. The next stage of the interrogation is not one you would survive observing.”

All three guests were caught off guard by that.

“Exit through the south door,” Haldri said. “One of our retainers will be waiting for you and will see you to our banquet hall.”

“Will you have an appetite after this work?” Gedli asked.

“Of course,” Haldri said. “It will be noontime.”

“And will we see the results of your interrogation?” the Duchess Sanli asked.

“We shall present our findings and release our prisoner following tea,” Haldri said.

From the north end of the great chamber, a deep rumbling of stone on stone arose. That, as much as the queen’s direction, motivated the Gallagrin guests to move towards the south door. All three counted themselves fortunate to reach the safety of the room beyond before the next phase of the interrogation began.

Haldri on the other hand was glad to stay. Her royal duties kept her awash in the problems of the kingdom. She spent nearly every waking hour dealing with her people and their problems. That was right and proper for a queen, but it meant Haldri didn’t get to spend anywhere near as much time as she wanted to with her other half.

“Hello Haldraxan,” Haldri said as a beast of scale, and claw, and fire, and smoke pushed himself into the room. Despite the vast size of the interrogation chamber, Haldraxan’s presence made it feel full to the bursting point.

“Hello Haldri,” the dragon said and lowered his head to be beside her.

Between them there were no titles and no honorifics. Haldri ruled Paxmer’s people. Haldraxan ruled Paxmer’s spirits. Together they ruled its land and wealth and all was as it should be.

“What have we today?” Haldraxan asked.

“A bandit,” Haldri said. “One who has stolen from us.”

“I smell the blood of Paxmer within his veins,” Haldraxan said.

“I know,” Haldri said. “I shall remedy that.”

“You will never make me forswear my country!” the man said.

“We do not need to,” Haldri said. “We are you country and by our judgment we forswear you and yours. You and those descended from you are no more children of Paxmer. We cast you out of our circle. We strip you of name and hearth and home. Though your body may linger here, you spirit is unwelcome and you shall not enjoy the solace or protection of our reign.”

“You use and destroy us at every turn! You offer no protection at all!” the man said.

“You shall discover just how wrong you are about that,” Haldri said.

Haldri watched her dragon focus on the trapped man. She watched the dragon fear roll out like a wave through the bandits flesh.

“What does he have that we wish?” Haldraxan asked over the inhuman screams that filled the gargantuan chamber.

“He and his compatriots stole one of our tax shipments,” Haldri said. “There was gold there. Not much in the grand scheme of things perhaps, but it was our gold.”

The queen and the dragon breathed as one in anticipation of reclaiming their plunder and in their hearts there was a song of joy.

Dae ran her hand down Alari’s back gently tracing the outlines of the queen’s spine. Or at least Dae was being as gentle as she could. With three layers of royal silk already draped over the queen, locating where Alari’s spine lay was proving to be a tricky proposition.

“It’s ok if the over-corset is off center,” Alari said. “I only have meetings with the Wagoneers Guild and the Corsi Shipping Syndicate today.”

“You are speaking to an ex-handmaiden, Your Majesty,” Dae said. “We take the job of making you look your best rather seriously.”

Threading up the garment with one hand was a skill Dae had perfected years prior but, as with any skill, lack of practice blunted the edge of perfection a great deal.

“Adae, my dearest and most infuriating, if I wanted to look my best I would have assembled the small army which is usually required to engineer the royal regalia,” Alari said. Despite her complaints, Alari held still, arms reaching towards the ceiling to allow Dae the freedom to adjust the fourth and fifth layers of the queenly garb which Alari was being buried under.

“Are you casting aspersions on my training Your Majesty?” Dae asked. “Training which I will remind you, that you, yourself insisted I be subjected to?”

“It was convenient at the time,” Alari said. “We got to avoid hours of boring meetings and hours of even less pleasant balls, which you can’t tell me you were ungrateful for.”

“I recall being grateful then, yes,” Dae said. “Just as I’m grateful now.”

“So this is revenge?” Alari asked, turning to face Dae as Dae swiveled her around to work on the lacing that ran along Alari’s waist.

“Yes,” Dae said. “Revenge for you allowing yourself to be thrown out a window.”

“And yet, strangely, this is leaving me with the impulse to repeat that trip,” Alari said.

“You are welcome to try,” Dae said. “I would point out though that I have enough lace and ribbon here that I am reasonably certain I could mummify you before you reached the sill.”

“If this goes on much longer I may be inclined to take my chances,” Alari said.

“You’re grumpy when your discomforted, my liege,” Dae said. “Could it be that your wounds still bother you more than you claim?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Alari said. “I am fully mended.”

Dae pulled the laced wrapping cord at the queen’s waist tight and her a squeak of pain escape Alari’s lips. With a triumphant smirk, Dae release the cord by a few inches.

“Fully mended I see,” Dae said, meeting Alari’s disapproving glare with a challenging gaze.

“Mended fully enough that I needn’t rest any further,” Alari said altering her claim in the face of Dae’s implied threat to tighten the waist cord again.

“And the Royal Chirurgeon agreed with that assessment did she?” Dae asked.

“She did not gainsay it,” Alari said, unwilling to meet Dae’s gaze.

“My Queen, my beloved Majesty,” Dae said. “I am sworn to protect you from all threats. Please remember that oath applies even, and most especially, when you are a danger to yourself.”

Dae straightened the last of the ribbons around Alari’s neck ruff and stepped back to judge whether any more adjustments were needed. Alari was right that the process would have been faster with the usual squadron of handmaidens who were responsible for dressing the queen. During Alari’s long convalescence though she’d been loathe to allow anyone except Dae to see the full extent of the wounds that Halrek’s betrayal had inflicted.

“I appreciate that my Adae,” Alari said. “But the quiet of winter is already beginning to thaw to a boisterous spring. As tempting as lounging in the royal bed is, there are wheels that must be set in motion before we are run down by history.”

“Paxmer has answered?” Dae asked, picking up the queen’s favorite brush and indicating for Alari to sit so that Dae could begin work the royal tresses.

“Not as yet,” Alari said. “And while that alone is enough to send a clear signal as to their intentions, we must be ready to respond once they take an overt course.”

“And the meetings today with the transport guilds?” Dae asked, sitting behind Alari and taking up a handful of her hair.

“Our royal court will see it as my returning to direct and active rule rather than acting through proxies as I’ve done for these last four months,” Alari said.

“The transport guilds may not be happy about that,” Dae said. “Your proxies have been more accommodating than you were from the accounts I’ve eavesdropped on.”

“That was at my urging,” Alari said. “The plot against me didn’t get as far as it did without a solid base of support from my nobles. I’m not ready to move against them yet, and I haven’t sifted those who claim to support me from those who actually do.”

“Telli was a great loss wasn’t he?” Dae asked, brushing the tangled ends of Alari’s hair out into smooth waves.

“He was an early supporter,” Alari said. “And he brought a solid contingent of the realm’s nobility with him when he joined my side of the war against my father.”

“Were they all following him, or did his presence give the undecided the courage to back you personally?” Dae asked.

“I suspect I will only know that for certain if I discover one of their daggers in my back,” Alari said.

“Then I’m afraid you’ll be left to wonder about them forever,” Dae said. “Or at least as long as I’m on the job.”

“Even you must sleep though my Knight,” Alari said.

“Which is why you’re allowing me to create the Queen’s Guard,” Dae said.

“Against my better judgment,” Alari said. “With Gallagrin uncontested once more, there is no one who can protect me better than myself.”

“And yet you still named me as your Knight,” Dae said.

“I am a selfish creature,” Alari said. “It was that or you were going to leave for Nath again.”

“I go only where you direct me,” Dae said, putting down the brush and gathering up three strips of Alari’s hair.

“So long as you are beside me, I need no other guardians,” Alari said.

“If you are attacked again, it won’t be by poison and it won’t be by a few assassins,” Dae said and began braiding the queen’s hair. “The next strike against your life will be backed by overwhelming force. After what we did to Telli and the Paxmer prince, the price of failure is too clear. Anyone who attempts to oust you will make sure they have a completely decisive advantage to put in play.“

“Then why place innocent men and women in the path of destruction like that?” Alari asked.

“To raise the level on what will count as a completely decisive advantage,” Dae said. “Ideally I won’t need to protect you from any attacks because I’ll be able to convince people to not attack you in the first place.”

“And how is the search for those extra protectors going?” Alari asked.

Dae finished off the first thin braid and gathered up three strips of hair from the other side of Alari’s head to start the next.

“Not as well as I’d hoped,” Dae said.

“The applicants for a position in the Royal Guard failed their test?” Alari asked.

“Not for a position in the Royal Guard,” Dae said. “Kemoral was happy with what he saw.”

“But you were not,” Alari said, seeing the shape of Dae’s thoughts in nothing more than her words and the tone she spoke them in.

“They were miserable,” Dae said. “One simple physical challenge and they met it with nothing except complaints. They didn’t display the first instinct towards teamwork or any signs of creative thought. I gave them simple rules and they met the challenge without ever testing the boundaries of what they’d been told.”

“Some people do follow instructions better than you do,” Alari said. “That’s not technically a sin you know.”

“I am aware,” Dae said. “I am also aware that a talent for following orders unthinkingly may make them excellent material for the Royal Guard, but your protectors are going to need to be able to see things coming from unexpected angles and react accordingly. Ideally I want people who have that capacity but who don’t think like me.”

“You don’t want them to share your blindspots,” Alari said

“Exactly,” Dae said. “I only have two eyes, I want a hundred watching out for you, in all directions, at every hour.”

“I feel quite safe when your eyes are with me,” Alari said.

“I find that comforting too,” Dae said and then sighed as memory overwhelmed her. “Six years. Six foolish years.”

“If not for those years, we would not be here today,” Alari said. “I regret every wasted moment of them, but I do not regret the today which they led us to.”

“You are wise, my Queen,” Dae said, a warmth blossoming in her chest. “I do not regret our today or our tomorrows either.”

For a moment the queen and her knight, enjoyed a satisfied silence covered by the familiar ritual of hair braiding. Whatever training the queen’s handmaidens received, none of them ever quite mastered the simple act of weaving Alari’s hair the way that Dae had.

For the palace personnel, it was a task which required skill and technical proficiency so that they wouldn’t draw the hair too tight or craft the slim braids with one of the strands being too large or too small.

For Dae it was more than a skill though. It was a form of communion. She didn’t simple weaving Alari’s hair. She spoke to her princess with each layered crossing and her princess responded in kind.

As always the process took less time than Dae would have preferred but as much as she dared claim for it. In the end, Alari looked wonderful, though to Dae’s eyes that had little to do with the preparation of the royal regalia or the careful design of the queen’s hair but rather everything to do with Alari herself.

When Dae met Alari, she had been impressed with the princess’ poise and presence. The child Alari possessed only a small fraction of the force of personality she developed as she grew into her role as queen though. If Dae looked for it, she could catch a glimpse of the girl she first met lingering within the queen, but the years had both given and taken so much that the woman who was the queen was as much an exciting mystery to Dae as the princess had ever been.

“There was one candidate who looked promising though,” Dae said, jumping back to an earlier point in their conversation to take her mind off how intense it was to be with her princess again.

“I thought no one passed your test?” Alari asked.

“No one bested the mountain,” Dae said. “Or me. But there was one who displayed the kind of thinking and perseverance I was looking for.”

“What did they do?” Alari asked.

“I asked them to climb the mountain in a storm without their pact spirit’s help,” Dae said. “The one who impressed me was at the back of the pack and wasn’t going to make it on her own, and none of the other idiots thought to help her.”

“Were you trying to kill my applicants?” Alari asked.

“No, no,” Dae said. “I just wanted to break them in a somewhat specific manner.”

“And how did this one break?” Alari asked.

“She jumped off the mountain,” Dae said. “And flew down to the base camp we’d setup.”

“So she cheated?” Alari asked.

“Yes, but she did it right,” Dae said. “I’d told them they couldn’t use their pacts to climb up the mountain. She only used hers to get back to safety and then as soon as the storm was over she started climbing up again, without her pact spirit’s help, as instructed. The rest of us were coming down the mountain by then, so I had her turn back but I want to see her again. There might be something I can work with there.”

“Good,” Alari said. “That’s excellent. Then perhaps you’ll wind up with two candidates for the Queen’s Guard.”

“Two?” Dae asked. “Who’s the other?”

“The Duchess of Tel has agreed to pay us a visit at last,” Alari said.

“Duke Telli’s daughter is coming here?” Dae asked. “I thought Ren said, she was sickly and couldn’t move till the spring.”

“He didn’t use the word sickly,” Alari said. “He claimed she was beset by a troubled spirit and needed to address that before she could withstand the trip from Elinspire.”

“What does that mean?” Dae asked.

“I don’t know,” Alari said. “It might be that her period of mourning her father has passed and she feels ready enough to confront his killer.”

“Why would you think that?” Dae asked.

“Because she claims she doesn’t care for the title of Duchess,” Alari said. “And that she is coming here because her dearest wish is to meet you.”